Home Secretary Amber Rudd will meet her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve in Paris today and is expected to reject any move to allow United Kingdom asylum claims in France.
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‘We are also committed to finding long-term solutions to the problem of illegal migration, which is why we created the Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce past year to work with law enforcement and worldwide partners to target the organised crime gangs behind people smuggling’. Migrants hoping to cross the Channel illegally would instead be able to make a British asylum claim while still on French soil.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve (L) welcomes Britain’s Home Secretary Amber Rudd before a meeting in Paris, France, August 30, 2016.
But a Home Office spokesman said: “We firmly believe in the established principle, enshrined in the Dublin Regulation, that those in need of protection should seek asylum in the first safe country they enter”.
“I’m demanding the opening of a centre in Britain to deal with asylum seekers in Britain so that Britain can do the work that concerns them”, Sarkozy told a political rally in Le Touquet in northern France.
Even Dover’s Tory MP Charlie Elphicke, who agreed a new treaty was needed and said Jungle inhabitants should be “repatriated” to their home countries, rejected the idea.
Under the Le Touquet deal, British immigration officials check passports in Calais and their French counterparts do the same in Dover.
Bertrand, who belongs to the same party as Sarkozy and Juppe, the conservative Les Republicains, has no power on migration issues, which was a hot-button issue in the Brexit vote in Britain and is now also in the campaign for next April’s presidential election in France.
A leading French humanitarian organization says the number of minors alone in a makeshift camp in Calais has increased by 151 percent to 861 with the youngest 10 years old.
Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France Nord Pas De Calais-Picardie region which includes Calais, has called for action to deal with the sprawling Jungle migrant camp.
The UK and France have pledged to “step up” cooperation to improve the situation in Calais where some 7,000 refugees and migrants have congregated at the Channel tunnel port.
“We remain committed to working together to protect our shared border in Calais and to maintain the juxtaposed controls”, he said.
‘It would be unwise because they depend on us for a lot of co-operation and training on security issues, ‘ the source said.
He said: “We will not continue to guard the border for Britain if it’s no longer in the European Union”.
“After all, the same terror networks that threaten France threaten security on British streets too”, Burnham said.
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He added that the French government’s continued support for the agreement was “clearly” restated last month in talks between Prime Minister Theresa May and President Francois Hollande.
